The Railroad Tie is back home

The Bonita wrestling team beat San Dimas in a close dual to win back the Railroad Tie. Varsity Boys won 40-39, JV Boys won 48-27 and Varsity girls tied 15-15.

The Railroad Tie is wrestling’s version of the Smudge Pot; it was made by Head Coach Brian Sandmark when he first started coaching and his initials are carved into the corner. This year’s victory was Sandmark’s first victory over San Dimas as head coach since he made the Railroad Tie.

Wrestlers Liam Barragan, Shane Lohr, Bayley Teach, Nico Dominguez, Giovanni Torres, and Isaiah Garcia all pinned their wrestler, earning the team six points each. Andre Baton won his match 11-5, earning the team four points. Katie Bentz and Tahna Dow both pinned their wrestler and Alyssa Martinez beat the other girl 6-0.

In wrestling, six points is awarded to the team if the other wrestler is pinned, to be pinned, the wrestler must hold his opponents shoulders on the mat for three seconds. If the match is won by having the most points at the end of the six minutes, the team gets three points and if the point gap gets big enough, either five or four are rewarded depending on the gap.

“I feel like we did a pretty good job over all, we some improving to do but over all we are going to be doing pretty well this season” commented Martinez on the girls’ performance.

The varsity match was extremely high energy with everyone cheering until their voices hurt and as soon as the team realized they won, the boys jumped up and started cheering, soon to be followed by JV and the girls, jumping up and down in a big group, holding the Rail Road Tie high in the air, showing it off to the audience.

After everyone calmed down, Coach Sandmark brought everyone together to talk before they went home.

“Enjoy this victory because it is yours for a whole year. That Railroad Tie is going to sit in the office for a whole year, right next to the Smudge Pot” Sandmark told the boys.

Last year, the boys lost the Railroad Tie at San Dimas in a close match, losing by one point and on the bus ride home, no one said a word. This year the boys couldn’t stop talking.

Teach felt, “very conditioned, like I dominated in my match and my adrenaline was up”.

The boys started off the season with a victory and are going to use this momentum to start off another great season.

—Alyssa Palmer